Northern polls: Time to end communal politics
The just concluded Provincial Council polls to the North will certainly end decades of mistrust among the two communities, provided the nationalist forces on both sides understand that the time has come to end communal politics.
The Government made a wrong assessment in believing that economic development and material support to the people in the former war-affected province would help it woo the northern people. The Government had a significant advantage over the TNA in the campaign; it delivered the goods prior to the election. One can argue that the human mind works in an incredible manner, and if the election was held immediately after the war, the result could have been different. This is because the people’s priority was basic needs like food, shelter and security. Now that they have food, shelter and security, they desire for political, ethnic, caste and religious aspirations and they obviously turn to the closest political power that they could rely upon.
The results to the three PCs illustrate a division of the nation between the Tamil nationalism and the Government-backed Sinhala nationalism. The leaders of both Northern and Southern parties should rethink their strategy in arousing nationalism to prevent a confrontation that would drag the country to misery once again.
The northern voter used the ballot to convey a clear message at the PC polls. The TNA manifes- to did not talk of a separate state or a Tamil Eelam; but it emphatically called for the right to selfdetermination.
The problem is more about nationhood, about recognition of Tamil people as equal citizens. Peaceful co-existence of two or more ethnic groups with divergent views on their rights, aspirations, and roots within a unitary state should be promoted.Unless the nationalist forces on both sides make positive shifts, the Government, or more correctly the President, may come under severe pressure in the future. We should prevent a recurrence of the crisis that hit Vartharajah Perumal’s shortlived, merged North-East PC, which President R. Premadasa dissolved prematurely in 1990.
Sri Lanka is a democratic republic and unitary state and not a confederation. The Sinhalese, though they are the majority, cannot treat the Tamils as second class citizens. The vast majority will not support measures to suppress a minority. The election results show once again that political rights do matter more than anything else, especially to the people in the North. Creating a system of power-sharing, with authority to make decisions affecting their lives is a sine-qua-non.
In a plural and multi- ethnic nation, decisions need to be reached with proper understanding of realities. The devolution of powers to the PCs under the 13th Amendment has not been implemented in a meaningful manner for more than 25 years due to the war. The country now needs an amended 13A, precisely a 13 A plus, as once told by the President himself.
Sticking to the 13th Amendment, at least for the time being, is a healthy option for the new chief minister of the North. K. K. S. Perera
Panadura